Pesky church-state issues: The Freedom from Religion Foundation investigates the Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast.

That's the city's phone number, isn't it? Someone's paying for those phone lines, aren't they?

I hadn't read the first word of this article, just the headline, when a thought popped quickly into my head: I'd bet a C-note or even two that the newspaper's resident traditionalist, Chris Morris, would scathingly condemn any brazen assault on such a hallowed municipal institution as a prayer breakfast (in effect) sponsored by city government.

Sure enough:

(Mayor Jeff) Gahan diverted comment on the letter to Linda Moeller, city controller. Moeller said she serves on the committee that plans and organizes the event. She said the committee, which doesn’t have appointed members, is made of volunteers, some who are city employees, but also members of the community outside of city hall.

Chris Morris, assistant editor at the News and Tribune, is on the committee.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Here are my Top Five reactions to the questioning of the prayer breakfast by a church-state separation group in Wisconsin.

5. But of course Chris Morris would be on the committee of a municipal prayer breakfast, and of course, as journalist, he'd never see any church-state separation issues pertaining to it -- after all, it has taken place for 46 years for a reason.

4. Say what? The mayor would not answer the question and chose instead to lob it elsewhere? How very atypical. Perhaps he'd briefly stepped out of the office to attend a city council meeting.

3. Didn't I mention the funding notion just this morning during my Alvin Dark remembrance? Yep, I sure did: "So long as tax dollars are not used in support of it ... they're not, are they?"

2. Wasn't it Walt Disney himself who said, "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing"? Well, it certainly is gratifying that after 46 years, someone (although not a journalist) finally detected a conceivable church-state separation issue and undertook to begin doing.

1. Wow, I wonder who had the temerity to make the complaint? I'd like to buy that person a Progressive Pint.

National group questions Mayor's Prayer Breakfast in New Albany, by Jerod Clapp (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — A national watchdog organization for issues pertaining to church and state separation sent a letter to New Albany regarding Saturday’s 46th Annual Mayor’s Community Prayer Breakfast.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., issued a letter to Jeff Gahan, New Albany Mayor, on Nov. 7 urging the city to discontinue the use of taxpayer dollars to plan, organize or promote the event, though city officials deny the use of city money or resources for the prayer breakfast.

Rebecca S. Markert, staff attorney for the organization and author of the letter, said the concern of the organization is whether city resources were used to promote an event geared toward one particular religion.

“I guess it depends on your definition of funding,” Markert said. “Even if the checks were written to some other organization, but they had city employees who were handling the RSVPs and sending out the invitations and taking time out of their work day to plan the breakfast ... they’re still taking up city resources and expenditures because they’re being paid for their time.”

Along with a letter to the mayor, the Freedom From Religion Foundation submitted an open records request for financial records pertaining to the breakfast, as well as correspondence from city employees about the event and copies of invitations and other documents to event speakers or hosts.